Here’s the thing: I know that my recipes sometimes sound like you need a full restaurant kitchen to make them. But I promise that’s not true! While it’s nice to have all sorts of equipment (like these five things), you can definitely make great pizza at home without any special tools.
In fact, when I made the most recent pizza posted here on Three Big Bites, I had exactly zero specialized pizza tools, and no kitchen electronics other than a blender that doesn’t work half the time.
Here’s how I did it, and how you can too, even if you don’t have special pizza-making tools in your home kitchen.
This is step 1 in my Complete Guide to Making Pizza. Check out the link to learn about other steps, like making pizza dough at home, stretching pizza dough, and how to prepare toppings for your pizza!
To make pizza dough without a mixer:
The ideal tool: a nice stand mixer that’s strong enough to handle tight dough.
The alternative: good old-fashioned elbow grease!
I used my 2-hour pizza dough recipe, but instead of processing the dough in a mixer, I turned it out onto a lightly floured clean surface and kneaded it by hand until it was smooth. This took about 10 minutes. From there, proceed as normal!
To rise/proof the dough:
The ideal tools: dough trays
The alternative: Any flat surface that you can move easily (so you can control its temperature by putting it in the fridge or on a warm, high shelf, for example).
I used a roasting tray. Some other options include a cake pan, a cutting board, a baking sheet, or even your microwave’s turntable tray. Just make sure it’s not something you’ll need for another part of the process!
To assemble the pizza (before baking):
The ideal tool: a wooden pizza peel
The alternative: Any flat surface without a lip or edge, because you’ll need to slide the pizza off of this and onto the baking surface.
I used a glass cutting board, which seems to be present in every kitchen and which is a terrible idea as a cutting board anyway.
Wooden or plastic cutting boards can work too. So can a rimless cookie sheet (it’s okay if there’s a rim on one side, like most of these seem to have!)
To bake the pizza:
The ideal tool: a pizza stone.
The alternative: any flat oven-safe surface without a lip or edge.
This sounds hard to find at first, but what I usually do is just flip a cookie sheet, roasting tray, or baking dish upside-down. It’s that simple! This gives your surface a flat surface to bake on, and you can preheat it in the oven to get some of the benefits of a pizza stone.
To remove the pizza from the oven:
The ideal tool: a metal pizza peel
The alternative: a flat surface and something for stabbing or grabbing.
Position a flat surface as close to the pizza as possible (I like to use a wood cutting board, because then I can slice the pizza right on it!). Use a utensil of your choice to drag the pizza onto the flat surface, either by grabbing and pulling it (like with tongs) or by stabbing and dragging it out (like with a fork).
To be honest, I usually just do this with my fingers, but working for several years in restaurants left my right fingertips immune to heat. I don’t recommend trying it!
And there you have it! Fantastic, delicious pizza at home without any special tools or equipment. I hope this helps you see how easy it is to make fancy pizzas in your home kitchen (without needing to buy anything special). To be honest, if you’re just starting to make pizzas at home or only do it occasionally, I don’t recommend buying anything right away. Once you get hooked, though, it’s definitely worth investing in most (if not all) of the ideal options listed for each step in this article.
Want to remember this? Post this guide to your favorite Pinterest board!
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